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town or village
Derbe
- Today Kerti Hüyük
History
Derbe lay in south-eastern Lycaonia, towards Isauria and Cappadocia. Its site is fixed by inscriptions. In 1956 Michael Ballance found at the mound of Kerti Hüyük, about 22 km north-east of Karaman (ancient Laranda), a dedication to the emperor Antoninus Pius set up in 157 by the council and people of Derbe. Because he saw no trace of Byzantine settlement on the mound, Ballance himself later looked for an alternative site close by; Derbe is placed at Kerti Hüyük or in its immediate neighbourhood.
In the first century BC Derbe was the seat of a local ruler, Antipater of Derbe, who also held Laranda; Cicero called him his guest-friend and close friend. Strabo says that Amyntas of Galatia attacked and killed Antipater and took Derbe. After Amyntas' death in 25 BC it became part of the Roman province of Galatia. Probably under Claudius the town took the name Claudio-Derbe, which appears on its coins of the second century.
After Paul was stoned at Lystra, he left the next day with Barnabas for Derbe, the farthest point of their journey. There they preached the gospel and taught many, and then turned back through Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples. Acts tells of no persecution at Derbe, and the Second Letter to Timothy, recalling Paul's sufferings, names Antioch, Iconium and Lystra but not Derbe.
Paul came to Derbe and Lystra again on his second journey, and there he found Timothy. One of the men who later went with Paul to Asia was Gaius of Derbe. The town remained small. It had bishops of its own; William Ramsay argued that later records name the see after Possala, a nearby village that outgrew Derbe.
Scripture: Acts 14:6; Acts 14:19–22; Acts 16:1; Acts 20:4; 2 Tim 3:11
Sources
- Dedication of the council and people of Derbe to Antoninus Pius, AD 157 (SEG 29.1522): M. Ballance, 'The Site of Derbe: A New Inscription', Anatolian Studies 7 (1957), 147-151
- M. Ballance, 'Derbe and Faustinopolis', Anatolian Studies 14 (1964), 139-145
- Strabo, Geography 12.6.3
- Cicero, Letters to Friends 13.73
- Cassius Dio, Roman History 49.32.3; 53.26.3
- B. V. Head, Historia Numorum (2nd ed., 1911), Lycaonia: Derbe (coins of Claudio-Derbe)
- W. M. Ramsay, The Cities of St. Paul (1907), part V: Derbe
Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.
Verses (5)
- Acts 14:6
- They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about:
- Acts 14:20
- Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.
- Acts 14:21
- And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,
- Acts 16:1
- Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek:
- Acts 20:4
- And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.
King James Version